Montezuma's Daughter

y schooling at Norwich, that was when I had entered on my sixteenth year, I had studied medicine under the doctor who practised his art in the neighbo

end me to London, there to push on my studies, so soon as I should attain my twenti

ated that I shou

ren, a son and a daughter, though his wife had borne him many more who died in infancy. The daughter was named Lily and of my own age, having been born three weeks after me in the same

ut I know that when first I went to school at Norwich I grieved more at losing sight of her than because I must part from my mother and the rest. In all our games she was ever my partner, and I would search the country round for days to find such flowers as she ch

t to be the case when a woman comes between friends however close. For it must be known that my brother Geoffrey also loved Lily, as all men would have loved her, and with a better right perhaps than I had-for he was my elder by three years and born to possessions. It may seem indeed that I was somewhat hasty to fall into this state, seeing that at the time of which I write I was not yet of age; but young blood is nimble, and moreover mine was half Spanish, and made a man of me when many a pure-bred Englishman is still nothing but a boy. For the blood and the sun that

d grave to sadness, in speech I was slow and temperate, and more apt at listening than in talking. I weighed matters well before I made up my mind upon them, but being made up, nothing could turn me from that mind short of death itself, whether it were set on good or evil, on folly or wisdom. In those days also I had little religion, since, partly because of my father's secret teaching and partly through the workings of my own reason, I had learned to doubt the doctrines of the Church as they used to be set out. Youth is pr

the heart of the most guileless and truthful maid. Moreover, I noticed that though she said it before her father and the rest of us, yet she waited to speak till my brother Geoffrey was out of hearing, for she did not wish to go maying with him, and also that as she spoke she shot a glance of her grey eyes at me. Then and there I vowed to myself that I also would be gathering hawthorn bloom in this same place and on that Wednesday afternoon, yes, even if I must play truant and leave all the sick of Bungay to Nature's nursing. Moreover,

n, and drew near to Ditchingham Park. Then I dropped my pace to a walk, for I did not wish to come before Lily heated and disordered, but rather looking my best, to which end I had put on my Sunday garments. Now as I went down the little hill in the road that runs past the park, I saw a man on horseback who looked first at the bridle-path, that at this spot turns off to t

hat moment there was something terrible about it. It was long, thin, and deeply carved; the eyes were large, and gleamed like gold in sunlight; the mouth was small and well shaped, but it wore a devilish and cruel sneer;

changed, the sneer left it, and it became kindly and pleasant looking. Lifting his bonnet with much courtesy he stammered something in broken English, of which all that

ish in Spanish,' I said, speaking in that l

yet you are not a Spaniard, though by your face you well mig

d, 'but I am in haste. Be pleased t

' and he nodded towards the park. 'Take the advice of an older man, young sir, and be careful. Make what sport

gh I would pass on,

n you no more. Will you graciously direct me on my road to Yarmouth, for I am not sure of it, havin

Ditchingham church. As I did so I noticed that while I spoke the stranger was watching my face keenly and, as it seemed to me, w

ious as to tell me y

red roughly, for I disliked this

and he smiled strangely. 'I only wished to know the name of one who had done me a cour

has been an honest one so far, and if you

face of a fiend. Then before I could find time even to wonder,

ies,' he said, drawing his silver-mounted sword. 'A name for

stranger, the report of whose coming to Yarmouth had stirred my father and mother so deeply. At any other time I should have remembered it soo

my left arm, passing through the flesh-no more. Yet at the pain of that cut all thought of flight left me, and instead of it a cold anger filled me, causing me to wish to kill this man who had attacked me thus and unprovoked. In my hand was my stout oaken staff which I had cut myself on the banks of Hollow Hill, and if I would fight I must make such play with this as

saw the big stick flourished over him he forgot his own advantage, and raised his arm to ward away the blow. Down it came upon the back of his hand, and lo! his sword fell from it to the grass. But I did not spare him because of that, for my blood was up. The next stroke took him o

r mercy. At last I ceased and looked at him, and he was no pretty sight to see-indeed, what with his cuts and bruises and the mire of the roadway, it would have been hard to know him for

there to hinder me from treating you as you would have dealt with me who

ed in a broken voice; 'it is better to die t

enceless man. You shall away to the justice to answer

ed, and shut his eyes as though with fain

Grubswell Oaks three hundred yards or more away, I caught sight of the flutter of a white robe that I knew well, and it seemed to me t

sed that hour's talk with Lily to bring a score of murderous-minded foreigners to their deserts, and, moreover, this one had earned good payment for his behaviour. Surely thought I, he might wait a while till I had done my love-making, and

d, 'till I am ready to fetc

and when he learned my name had fallen upon me madly trying to kill me. Was not this the man whom my mother feared, and was it right that I should leave him thus that I might go maying with my dear? I knew in my

o were yet unborn. Then they had never known death, nor I the